E-Paper
Health ministry extends coverage of anti-anaemia plan
According to the National Family Health Survey-4, 53% of non-pregnant women, 50.3% of pregnant women, and 58.5% of children in the age group of 6-59 months suffer from anaemia.
The revamp of the health ministry’s iron and folic acid supplementation programme a little over a year ago has led to the coverage reaching 30-35% on an average, nearly double of what was being managed since efforts were first made in the 80s to tackle nutritional anaemia among adolescent girls, pregnant women and lactating mothers, according to a health ministry official.
According to the National Family Health Survey-4, 53% of non-pregnant women, 50.3% of pregnant women, and 58.5% of children in the age group of 6-59 months suffer from anaemia.
Anaemic people lack adequate number of red blood cells or have dysfunctional red blood cells, leading to reduced oxygen supply to organs that can cause fatigue, shortness of breath, light-headedness, dizziness or a fast heartbeat.
“The programme under which iron and folic acid supplementation is provided has been around for years, but the coverage never went beyond 15-20% on average. About two years ago health ministry did a critical appraisal of the programme and realised there wasn’t enough demand generation among the target group as people in the community weren’t aware of the magnitude of the problem,” said a senior health ministry official, on condition of anonymity.
“Since anaemia doesn’t kill per se, even though it severely compromises one’s quality of life, people tend to take it lightly. So, it was thought that the programme needs a major overhaul, and the entire strategy needs a re-look,” the official added.
In the end of 2018, the government intensified its efforts and renamed the initiative as ‘Anaemia Mukt Bharat’ programme under which the coverage target for iron and folic acid supplementation has been set as 80%.
“The target is to reduce anaemia each year by 3% as opposed to the current less than 1% per year. For achieving a target that is three times the current situation, there was a need to think of out of the box strategies. We brought the T-3 approach; which is test, treat and talk anaemia,” the official said.
As part of the initiative, state governments are holding camps in schools and villages to test blood for haemoglobin levels; treat those who are found to be anaemic and use community members to generate awareness about anaemia and its harmful effects.
Doctors say anaemia is one of the major contributors towards maternal mortality in pregnant and new mothers.
“If there’s excessive bleeding in an anaemic woman during childbirth, then chances of death increase manifold. Also, anaemic women give birth to unhealthy children. Therefore, it is important to tackle anaemia burden, and supplementation is a good way,” says Dr Anuradha Kapur, director, institute of obstetrics and gynaecology, Max Healthcare.
Food fortification is another area which the government is taping in a big way to meet nutritional deficiencies.
“Now we have double fortified salt with iodine and iron that is being used for mid-day meal and meals distributed in the anganwadi centres in villages. Wheat and rice is also being fortified to fulfil the gap as fortification is an effective way of supplementing what is lacking in our daily diet,” the official added.
